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Go back twenty years and the latest excitement on front was having more than one in your home. This was what the words `mobile' and `phone' conjured up for most [...]

A profile of the market performance of British Telecom is presented. Particular attention is given to the company's poor market performance in 1999 and 2000 and to its investments and fund management systems. The firm's Australian equity portfolio is examined.

British Telecommunications PLC (BT) undertook major changes in the structure and mechanics of corporate joint consultations in 1990 as part of its Project Sovereign cultural-change program. The company explained that it wanted to improve employee participation and employ new communication strategies. However, observers noted that BT's efforts also limited union activity and influence, particularly in collective bargaining.

British Telecom (BT) celebrates 10 years as a private company in 1994 and shareholders have seen stock increased 150%, outperforming the London market as a whole. BT has invested in modernising its domestic networks and over half of its local exchanges are digital which has brough greater reliability. It also offers more sophisticated services through its electronic exchanges, and customers have beenefited from price reductions of 30%. However the price cuts were largely due to the price capping formula imposed by Oftel. Mercury is its only rival for long distance fixed networks, although rival operators have 13% of the total business telephony market. The major threat is from cable TV companies who are developing local broad band netowrks.

The organizational set-up in British Telecommunications PLC features an extensive communication network within its research and development division, and between this division and other divisions. Formal and informal communication patterns are adopted in response to customer type. Senior managers recognize the relationship between product development and business strategy, and are considering a shift in strategies from technological innovation to an emphasis on providing the customer's needs.

Companies undergoing organizational changes must exert caution in using culture change programs as the means to instill changes in corporate values. British Airways PLC and BT PLC's separate experiences subsequent to privatization lend some insight into the process of changing organizational culture. The two British companies' experiences should serve as lessons to organizations in similar situations to refrain from the notion that the restructuring of corporate values, and consequentially that of the organizational culture, will lead to the success of the organization. Organizations must be able to differentiate between management development as a means for employee motivation and as a process for employee development.

Despite the risks involved, the tendency for companies to farm out non-core processes such as HR and IT to external providers shows no sign of fading. Cathy Hayward charts the [...]

British Telecom's (BT) Workstyle 2000 programme aims to support employee creativity while retaining a corporate culture. Strong emphasis is placed on work area flexibility, and the Office of the Future initiative uses a radio wave-based network to allow mouse, computer, monitor and keyboard to communicate with each other. Steve Cherry, BT's chief valuer and head of workplace technology, emphasizes that technology is changing rapidly, and expects that the conventional monitor will become obsolete by the end of the first decade of the 21st century.

When British Telecom lost its nerve over MCI, it lost its way. Can it set a new course-and show other incumbent firms that there is life after monopoly? IN THE [...]

Times are tough for management fads these days. Not just any old panacea can survive the competitive, cutthroat world of those professional business doctors - the gurus, consultants, management authors […]

Michael Hepher wasn't exactly thrilled when he was approached in 1991 to see whether he'd be interested in becoming group managing director of BT. He'd had appalling service from the […]

Hermes Real Estate Investment Management Limited, a real estate manager in the U.K., has announced that it has joined forces with UOB Global Capital, a subsidiary of United Overseas Bank, [...]

You may have seen Broadband Delivery UK's bidding guide for local authorities and others interested in taking part in the government's [pounds sterling]530m rural broadband programme, writes Guy Jarvis, director [...]

It can hardly have surprised communications minister Ed Vaizey and BT CEO Ian Livingston that would-be competitors to BT would find the terms, conditions - and prices - of access [...]

News that the government may be giving serious thought to a 'last mile first' approach when it comes to spending public money on broadband projects emerged this week to a [...]

Lancashire County Council has issued a request for between three and five tenders to provide superfast broadband to the county within three years at a cost of [pounds sterling]20m to [...]

Communications providers are coolly receptive to Openreach's draft proposals to open up BT's poles and ducts to other network operators, but some firms are much less keen. BT published the [...]

Forty-one market towns with around 300,000 businesses and consumers will get broadband access of up to 40Mbps from spring next year as part of the next phase of BT's [pounds [...]

BT is using 'predatory' practices to destroy broadband competitors, particularly in rural areas, claims cross-bench peer Lord Erroll. Speaking at the annual All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Communications (ApComm) conference on [...]

CMA anger grows as Ofcom lets BT off the high-speed hook Ofcom's proposed extension of relief to BT from its formal obligation to provide certain high-speed network products has angered [...]

As the days tick by to the General Election, the future of Britain's privatised industries is once again back in the spotlight. As usual, BT is in the thick of […]

Yorkshire Post Aviva said it is 'fully committed' to its Indian call centres after BT announced plans to bring jobs back to the UK. BT revealed that it is preparing [...]

Byline: John King British Telecom PLC has been created through the privatization of what was once a government department. The Managing Director of BT's Overseas Division describes the transformation that has taken place, both in organizational structure and management style, and looks at BT's moves into the international market-place.

BT this week restarted trials of its controversial web-tracking ad technology, following backing for the project from the Government. The Government told the European Commission two weeks ago that it [...]

Byline: Peter Bartram CULTURECLUB BT may not be everybody's favourite telecom company, but at least it hasn't downloaded its customers' details to a disc and put it in the post. [...]

BT's strategic planning business will be handled in house for the first time following the split with PHD (MW August 10). It was thought the #30m account would go to […]

BT is rolling out a national digital network that may not support functions that are vital for the safe running of utility networks . Peta Firth reports Under new regulations, [...]

Bill Goodwin bill.goodwin@rbi.co.uk BT is outsourcing its IT development work to India because it has been unable to find the large numbers of highly-qualified IT staff it needs in the […]

BT was generally thought to have narrowly escaped an enforced break-up when regulator Ofcom announced in July that the telecoms giant would instead set up a separate access service division [...]

Communications regulator Ofcom this week proposed capping BT's wholesale rental charges for broadband lines. It proposed a ceiling of [pounds sterling]81.85 a year on what BT could charge third parties, [...]

Corporate telecoms provider Cable & Wireless (C&W) is considering making a formal complaint to the telecoms adjudicator over BT's delay in opening up its local loop. C&W said BT had [...]